BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1709|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1709
Author: Gallagher (R), et al.
Amended: 4/28/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/9/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill modernizes various codes referencing "deaf
or hearing impaired" individuals by replacing existing
references to "hearing impaired" with "hard-of-hearing." This
bill also makes other technical and nonsubstantive changes to
those codes.
ANALYSIS: Existing law references "deaf or hearing impaired"
individuals, and at times only "hard of hearing" individuals.
(Civ. Code Secs. 54.1, 54.2; Code Civ. Proc. Sec. 224; Ed. Code
Secs. 44265.6, 44265.8, 44265.9; Evid. Code Secs. 754 754.5;
Gov. Code Secs. 8593, 8593.2, 8840, 8841, 53112, 68560.5, 84507;
Health & Saf. Code Secs. 1259, 1373.65, 1568.02, 121369; Pen.
Code Sec. 13835.4; Pub. Util. Code Secs. 2881, 2881.1, 2881.2,
2881.4; Unemp. Ins. Code Secs. 11000, 11003, 11004; Welf. &
Inst. Code Secs. 10559, 10620, 10621, 10622, 10624, 10625.)
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This bill:
1)Updates the above sections to instead reflect the terminology
"deaf or hard of hearing," and to add reference to "deaf"
where existing law only mentions "hearing impaired," if
appropriate.
2)Makes other technical and nonsubstantive changes throughout
these code sections. For example, this bill replaces
references to terms and phrases such as "including but not
limited to" with "including," "utilize" with "use," "may not"
with "shall not," and "prior to" with "before."
Background
Existing law references throughout various codes deaf or hearing
impaired individuals. According to the National Association of
the Deaf (NAD):
The deaf and hard of hearing community is diverse. There are
variations in how a person becomes deaf or hard of hearing,
level of hearing, age of onset, educational background,
communication methods, and cultural identity. How people
"label" or identify themselves is personal and may reflect
identification with the deaf and hard of hearing community,
the degree to which they can hear, or the relative age of
onset. For example, some people identify themselves as
"late-deafened," indicating that they became deaf later in
life. Other people identify themselves as "deaf-blind," which
usually indicates that they are deaf or hard of hearing and
also have some degree of vision loss. Some people believe
that the term "people with hearing loss" is inclusive and
efficient. However, some people who were born deaf or hard of
hearing do not think of themselves as having lost their
hearing. Over the years, the most commonly accepted terms
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have come to be "deaf," "Deaf," and "hard of hearing." (NAD,
Community and Culture - Frequently Asked Questions
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Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/17/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/17/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/9/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines, Eduardo Garcia
Prepared by:Ronak Daylami / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
6/17/16 15:03:39
**** END ****
AB 1709
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